Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Introducing my other major project for this year -- a c. 1668 gown for Nell Gwyn, or, What Would Nell Gwyn Wear? Sit down, this is a long post!

I tend to get really evil ideas. Last year it took a while to come down off the immense stress of pulling off the Eugenie project for Costume Con, and I vowed never again would I undertake a costuming project with that many people.

Cut to a few months later, right before Costume College, I was reading a historical fiction book about Nell Gwyn (The King's Favorite, which I highly recommend btw if you're into that sort of thing). As readers of this site will know, I adore making and wearing costumes, but I equally adore having the chance to put on a historical persona, to both be someone else but also to experience history in that way.

So there I am, riding the BART train home from work, and suddenly a horrible, Grinchy idea pops into my head - what about doing a costuming project that involves recreating the mistresses of Charles II? Oh god no, I thought, not again. But the idea stuck, and I realized that if it WASN'T for any sort of competition (meaning everyone has to be done on time and to the same quality level etc.), it could be fun. And there were a LOT of mistresses (Chuck being prolific that way), so a lot of people could join; including people of the court beyond the mistresses would allow anyone to join, and it would be fun to have a group project that was welcoming to everyone! Plus I've always wanted to make a costume from this era, but never had an excuse... and I knew it would need to be made from duchesse silk satin, which would cost an arm and a leg.

And then it was downhill from there -- Sarah loved it, Trystan was talked into it when she found out she could be Aphra Behn, and everyone else I talked to at Costume College was in. Since then, there's been lots of plotting on our LiveJournal community.

Of course, it was my idea, so I got to pick my character first. As I read the book mentioned above, I loved Nell Gwyn's personality; I loved that she was an actress who rose from the proverbial gutter to the king's bedroom; I loved that she was a redhead. Okay, yes she was also like 5' tall, which is a bit laughable on me, but I figured a bit of artistic license would be okay.

Now, on to what I'm going to make! One of the biggest wrinkles with this period is that there aren't a lot of portraits painted in England in the 1660s-70s that show women in real dress (as in the kind of dress they'd walk around in); most show women in various semi-mythological drapery. So most everyone would need to research their person and create a dress that that person might have worn. While there are portraits of Nell, they are VERY drapery/posing gown.

I struggled a bit with the exact era -- all the costumes in the project are supposed to be from the reign of Charles II (1660-85); I've always adored the silhouette and hairstyles of the 1660s, but the 1670s were tempting too, particularly the perhaps even sillier hairstyles -- but I realized that I didn't like the narrower silhouette of that era so much.

Nell's acting career really took off in 1666, and she hooked up with Charles in 1668; by 1671 she had retired from the stage. I was most drawn to her stage years, but still want to be a mistress, so am aiming for 1668 (in other words, late 1660s) for this costume. Unlike many of the costumes I make, there's no one specific costume I'm trying to recreate; instead, this will pull together the elements of late 1660s costume that I love. Here's a collage of images that are particularly inspiring me:

I have posted a sketch of my concept, as well as what will be the real linchpin of this costume: the fabric and trim. One of the things I adore about this era is that it's all about excellent tailoring of simple yet elegant materials (not that I don't also have a soft spot for trim on trim a la the 1870s); while fabrics like taffeta were used, the majority of dresses are in silk duchesse satin and I always knew that's what I needed for this project.

So I finally did it bought 8 yards of silk duchesse from C&J Textiles in New York in apple green. The color was inspired by the few green 1600s dresses I've seen (hey, I'm a redhead) and, I will admit, a dress worn by Nell Gwyn in "The Last King" (miniseries starring Rufus Sewall). To trim, I found some wide silver laces at MJ Trim (the wider lace will be the skirt center front, while the narrower will be on the dress and sleeves). I thought about doing one of the gowns with the split overskirt, but at the price of this fabric and trim, there's no way I could afford it -- so a single skirt it will be.

I'm still doing lots of research on undergarments and construction, so lots more plotting is to come... I'm off to sit down with Janet Arnold and Norah Waugh for some more research!